Saturday, August 25, 2012

Vaccine Kill 133 in 2011, 138 in 2010, 116 in 2009, and 111 in 2008

My Comments:
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''While deaths from vaccines are acknowledged in medical studies and such deaths and damages are compensated millions of dollars in developed countries, they are denied as "coincidental" in India. This is outrageous. What steps has the Government taken to study the toxicity of the vaccine ingredients? What steps has it taken to study the safety of the vaccines introduced? What steps has it taken to study the effects of simultaneous administration of vaccines? What steps has it taken to evaluate the effects of the entire vaccination schedule of both the Govt as well as the IAP? Are vaccines at all safe? The sharp increase in the rates of deaths and adverse effects worldwide and the worsening health of our children indicates otherwise. Vaccines are a commercial product and corporate are known to hide the risks and effectiveness through doctored studies and aggressively lobby for their administration. Vaccines target infants, children, and youth. Should the corporate be allowed to play with the health of this population? Once a vaccine is introduced it continues without surveillance and without assessing its continuation. Should this be allowed? Today in urban areas children are being administered around 45 vaccine shots including booster doses! Is this sane? Is it safe to administer vaccines to children at all considering that they are in the rapid growth phase and have undeveloped organs? Earlier doctors used to protest vaccines but today they are rewarded with hefty commissions. They thus have a conflict of interest while advising them. Should we listen to them or like the educated parents in developed countries should we research on our own and decide what is best for our children? The least our Govt can do is to give us the list of vaccine ingredients and their toxicity, singly and in combination and provide us the list of adverse events noted so far in the few independent studies that are ever conducted on the safety of vaccines. Otherwise it can well stop the procedure using the Precautionary Principle. It is painful to see our children butchered, rendered diseased and disabled in the name of "health" care. Enough!''

Minister of state for health Sudip Bandhopadhyay admitted on Friday said that six of those deaths occurred due to programme errors, while four others died of vaccine reaction.

Around 56 deaths have been termed "unclassifiable", and 67 were termed "coincidental."

In comparison, 138 children had died of AEFI in 2010. The death figures till last year had persistently risen. There were 111 and 116 deaths in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

India has one of the world's largest universal immunization programme, targeting 2.6 crore children who are born every year. Each child is given four vaccinations in addition to vaccinations at birth. About 90 lakh vaccination sessions are held every year, where more than 25 crore vaccine doses of seven antigens like diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, BCG,Hepatitis B and polio are administered.

Bandhopadhyay said, "AEFI including deaths are being reported due to strengthening of the AEFI sdystem. AEFI are monitored by the government to build confidence of the community in the immunization programme as all serious AEFI including deaths following immunization may not be related to vaccination."

Talking about measures being taken up by the ministry, the minister said, "guidelines for AEFI were revised in 2010 and have been disseminated. Training of officers associated with immunization have been carried out so that AEFI deaths due to programmatic errors are minimized."

Vaccination programme is carried out both in health facilities and door-to-door outreach sessions in every village.

Booster doses are also given at the age of one and a half years and five years. Besides, supplementary immunization activities are carried out periodically.

The ministry called vaccination one of the most cost-effective public health interventions to protect children against mortality, morbidity and disability across the world.

"Around 18.3 lakh children under five years die every year due to various illnesses. These include 13.2 lakh children who die before reaching the age of one year and 9.4 lakh within the first month after birth. However, each AEFI is investigated, and an effort is made to establish the cause. Any disruption in cold chain may affect the potency, and thereby the efficacy of the vaccine, but can hardly cause deaths. In case of any contamination of vaccine to an extent that it would cause fatality, deaths of a greater magnitude would occur as any batch of vaccine is administered to a very large number of children," a health ministry official said.